Meet Florah

These are the kinds of stories your Garden Twinning support helps make possible.
Through your support and Ripple Effect’s work alongside farming families in rural Africa, people like Florah are learning sustainable farming skills, building more secure livelihoods, and then sharing what they learn with others in their communities - creating a ripple effect of lasting change.

Florah has started with Ripple Effect in 2015.

"I'm Florah. I live in Kenya and I am a mother of four children and 13 grandchildren. I am a widow. I lost my husband when I was 29. I was left with four boys to bring up on my own and I was a widow with no direction. I used to dig for other people on their land. I didn't have any other means of getting funds for my kids school fees. Ripple Effect changed me completely. My kids went to school comfortably and I thank Ripple Effect for this. When I go to training I earn money, I keep chickens, collect milk, grow vegetables, and have offspring from my cows. Now every Saturday I sell fish at the local market. People call me supermarket!

If I didn't get this training things would be so bad now. I was in a different situation. Now one of my sons is an engineer, another a photographer, and another an electrician. Without training from Ripple Effect they wouldn't have gone to school. I thank Ripple Effect for this support."

"I didn't know how to farm before Ripple Effect, I was taught. This place was bare. I didn't know anything. Sometimes I pity who I used to be but now I am happy.

I was shown how to take care of a cow. I was given a female cow that went on to have six calves. I started selling milk. I didn't even have a proper house. But because of Ripple Effect we were able to extend. Now I have water, electricity, and income generating activities. That is what motivates me to train others.

Ripple Effect then were keen to give me more skills and I started mentoring other Peer Farmer trainers. I was chosen as a Peer Farmer trainer (PFT) and I was taken to a training centre. I was trained properly to help groups and people in the community. From then until now I have trained over 5000 people. I was among the first PFTs to be nominated. I am a champion of training cornerstones. I am proud of Ripple Effect Kenya. They have trained me and taken me to train others. Now life is good I have a big team of women that I have mentored to become Peer Farmer trainers. I have maintained my learnings as I know the importance of them. I train people to come out of poverty and for this I am happy and proud.

School children, groups and farmers come to my house to learn about sustainable organic agriculture. I share all the techniques and I am proud to do so. This is passing on the gift. Spirituality allows me to share what I have and what I have learned.

I have built many cone gardens. I train farmers how to make plant tea with soft leaves to top dress the vegetables. I also place a spring onion in each garden as a repellent crop. I do pure organic farming and we use only organic manure. I use a measure of two buckets of water to one bucket of plant tea so it doesn't burn the crops. I then pour it onto my crops. You add the plant tea to the soil with a cup."

"I use things from my farm to control pests such as onion and coriander. Nothing destroys our vegetables, we are totally organic. I am happy with my Ripple Effect teacher as he teaches us so well.

I am also growing fruits such as paw paw. If you have all these things on your farm, you don't need to go to the supermarket.

We learned to make bag gardens with drainage in the centre which helps during periods of drought. It only takes a few months to get vegetables. Also they are aesthetic and look nice. My garden is my bank! 

I use well made compost baskets to hold compost together. During drought you pour water in the centre and it percolates to the rest of the garden. In a month I'll get 1500 Kenyan shillings (£8.60) from one bed. I eat vegetables worth 1200 Kenyan shillings (£6.90) per month and sell the rest. This helps to pay for my children to go to school. I can afford to even buy a beautiful dress."

"It is important to mulch to conserve water, it also rots and becomes humus to the soil. The soil becomes very rich and life continues. No chemicals are needed. But every garden needs an onion to repel pests.

The first cutting that Isaac (Ripple Effect trainer) bought us was a good quality banana. This is the best way to get nutritious food quickly. Now we take suckers to other farmers. I didn't have fruit before but it was promoted as part of the project.

I've learned about hygiene and built a clean latrine. We use ash to control the smell and flies. It is good for visitors. The one we have built has a bathroom and a toilet with a tip-tap placed outside. A tip-tap must be on the farm. Hands must be clean at all times even if harvesting vegetables for the supermarket. People come here to purchase my vegetables because they know they are good quality. I have also improved my home hygiene by having a dish rack."

"I have 15 different avocado trees which are all harvested at different times of the year. I also grow sweet potatoes with seeds I received from the project. They produce more potatoes and the big orange variety which are very nutritious and sweet. We also got a new variety of cassava that produces a long root for cooking. I have also made an improved cook stove. 

We were taught about rainwater harvesting after which I bought this tank to collect water from the metal sheets on the roof. My first house was small. This house was constructed with money I earned after working with Ripple Effect."